Percutaneous pigtail catheter versus chest tube for the treatment of pediatric traumatic hemothorax: An Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma multicenter study
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Read the article on pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ↗Article · Sep 2025 · 1 min read
In brief
In brief
Multicenter retrospective study comparing percutaneous pigtail catheters to traditional chest tubes for pediatric traumatic hemothorax drainage across 41 trauma centers. Results demonstrate similar efficacy and complication rates between the two approaches in hemodynamically stable children, suggesting pigtail catheters are a viable alternative to larger chest tubes.
Written by the GCMD Library team from the article.
Statements in this article
The study included hemodynamically stable pediatric trauma patients younger than 18 years with hemothorax or hemopneumothorax.
Catheter failure was defined as a requirement for surgery, additional tube placement, or thrombolytics.
Of 548 patients, 477 had chest tube and 71 had pigtail catheter placement.
The median age was similar between chest tube (15.7 years) and pigtail catheter (15.6 years) groups.
The median Injury Severity Score was similar between chest tube (17) and pigtail catheter (16) groups.
Penetrating trauma patients more often received chest tubes (62.6%) compared to pigtail catheters (35.2%).
Failure rate was similar between chest tube (17.6%) and pigtail catheter (12.6%) groups.
Overall complication rate (respiratory distress, effusion, empyema, pneumonia, infection, deep venous thrombosis) was 19.7% in the pigtail catheter group versus 11.9% in the chest tube group on univariate analysis.
On multivariable analysis adjusting for age, sex, mechanism of injury, and Injury Severity Score, the risk of complications was not increased with pigtail catheters (odds ratio 1.05, 95% confidence interval 0.95-1.15).
Length of stay and intensive care unit length of stay were similar between chest tube and pigtail catheter groups.